Evaluation of Changes in Appropriateness of Blood Transfusion in a Tertiary Care Hospital after Advertising the Transfusion Guideline Proposed in 2009

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: In support of safe and appropriate utilization of blood products, the Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Korean Society of Blood Transfusion developed transfusion guidelines in 2009. We evaluated the appropriateness of blood transfusions on the basis of these proposed guidelines. METHODS: We investigated the awareness of the 2009 proposed guidelines and the transfusion guidelines currently in use through a questionnaire administered to the physicians of a tertiary care hospital. We provided the 2009 proposed transfusion guidelines through summarized pop-ups for each blood product that appeared in the hospital information system whenever a physician ordered blood products, and promoted the guidelines by posting it on the bulletin board and the hospital information system for one month. Evaluation of the appropriateness of blood transfusion was conducted by reviewing the medical records of patients who were transfused within one month before and one month after the promotion. Further, we also examined the rates of blood wastage and return. RESULTS: Rates of appropriately transfused blood products changed from 29.4% to 33.1% for red blood cells, from 16.9% to 68.9% for platelets, and from 54.8% to 33.3% for fresh frozen plasma. The decreased appropriate transfusion rate of fresh frozen plasma might be due to the small number of transfusions performed during the short study period. The rates of blood wastage and return decreased from 1.77% to 1.21% and from 3.91% to 3.00%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Promotion of the new transfusion guidelines lowered the incidence of inappropriate transfusions. Continuous promotion and establishment of these guidelines after adjustments according to the status of each hospital are necessary.